Experimental studies on the differentiation of embryonic tissues growing in vivo and in vitro .—II. The development of the isolated early embryonic eye of the fowl when cultivated in vitro

Abstract

In a previous communication (Strangeways and Fell, 1926) it was shown that if the undifferentiated limb-bud of the embryonic Fowl was cultivated in vitro , it underwent a considerable amount of progressive development. This capacity for independent development in vitro possessed by an isolated organ has been further investigated, and for these later experiments the writers have employed the early embryonic eye, a structure endowed with more complex potentialities than the limb-bud. As a result of these experiments it was found that the eyes of young Fowl embryos possess, in a remarkable degree, the faculty for self-differentiation in vitro and for “organotypic” growth as defined by Maximow (1925). The previous work on organotypic growth in vitro has already been briefly outlined in the writers’ earlier paper and need not be discussed here. The expenses connected with the experiments described in this communication were met by the Medical Research Council, to whom the writers desire to express their thanks.